 THE REAL PRESENCE Saint Peter Julian Eymard Founder, Blessed Sacrament Fathers  THE HIDDEN GOD Vere tu es Deus absconditus, Deus Israel Salvator! Verily thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel the Savior. (Isaias xlv. 15.) WE CAN understand why the Son of God loved man enough to become man Himself; the Creator must have been set on repairing the work of His hands. We can also understand how, from an excess of love, the God-Man died on the Cross. But something we cannot understand, something that terrifies those of little faith and scandalizes unbelievers, is the fact that Jesus Christ, after having been glorified and crowned, after having completed His mission here below, wanted still to dwell with us, and in a state more lowly and self-abasing than at Bethlehem, than on Calvary itself. With reverence let us lift the mysterious veil that covers the Holy of Holies, and let us try to understand the excess of love which our Savior has for us. I THIS veiled condition of existence is the most glorious one for the Heavenly Father; for thus Jesus renews and glorifies all the states of His mortal life. What He cannot do in the glory of Heaven, He does on the altar through His state of self-abasement. What looks of complacency must not the Heavenly Father cast upon the earth where He sees His Son, Whom He loves as Himself, in a state of poverty, humility, and obedience! Our Lord bas found the means of perpetuating and renewing unceasingly the sacrifice of Calvary. He wants His Father to have constantly before His eyes the heroic deed by which His Son gave Him infinite glory-----when He immolated Himself in order to destroy the kingdom of His enemy, Satan. Jesus Christ continues to wage against pride the war that will vanquish it. As there is nothing so repugnant to God as pride, so there is nothing that glorifies Him so much as humility. His Father's glory is the first reason for the hidden state of our Lord in the Eucharist. II JESUS CHRIST is working in His hidden state at the task of my sanctification. In order to become a Saint I must conquer pride and replace it with humility. In the Eucharist, Jesus gives me the example and the grace of humility. He is the One Who uttered these words: "Learn of Me that I am meek and humble of heart." But humility would have been little better than a name during the last eighteen centuries, if our Lord had left us only the memory of the examples of His mortal life. We could say, and with reason, "But, Lord, I have not seen Thee humbled!" Well then, Jesus Christ is there to answer our excuses, our complaints. The words, "Learn of Me that I am meek and humble of heart," come to us in a special way from the tabernacle, from behind the veil of the Host. "Learn of Me to conceal your good works, your virtues, your sacrifices; come down, come down toward Me." The grace of humility is found in the humiliated state of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. What human glory can fear abasing itself since the King of glory abases Himself so much? What rich man will not prize the lovable poverty of Jesus Hostia? Who will refuse to obey God and those who represent Him, when God Himself obeys man? III THE hidden state of Jesus strengthens me against my weakness. I may draw near to Him, speak to Him, and look upon Him without fear. If His glory were resplendent, who would dare speak to Jesus Christ, when even the Apostles fell to the ground terror-stricken for having seen a ray of His glory on Thabor? Jesus veils His power which would frighten mall. He veils His sanctity, the sublimity of which would discourage our little virtues. A mother lisps with her child and comes down to his level so as to lift him up to her own. In the same way Jesus makes Himself little with the little in order to lift them up to Himself, and through Himself to God. Jesus veils His love and tempers it. Its ardor is such that it would consume us were we directly exposed to its flames. Ignis consumens est. "God is a consuming fire." That is how Jesus in His hidden state strengthens us against our weakness. There is no greater proof of love than this Eucharistic veil. IV THE Eucharistic veil perfects our faith. Faith is a pure act of the intellect, unhampered by the senses. In the present case, the senses are of no use; there is nothing they can do. This is the only mystery of Jesus Christ in which the senses must be reduced to absolute silence. In every other mystery, for example, in the Incarnation, in the Redemption, the senses see God as a child, they see Him as a dying God; but here, nothing save an impenetrable cloud. Faith alone must act, for it is the realm of faith. This obscurity requires of us a very meritorious sacrifice, the sacrifice of our reason and of our intellect. We must believe even against the testimony of our senses, against the ordinary laws of nature, against our own personal experience. We must believe on the mere word of Jesus Christ. There is only one question to put: "Who is there?"-----"I." answers Jesus Christ. Let us fall to the ground and adore Him! This faith, pure and detached from the senses and free in its action, unites us simply to the truth of Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament. "The flesh profiteth nothing," says the Savior. "My words are spirit and life." The soul overcomes the obstacle of the senses and enters into the wonderful contemplation of the Divine presence under the Species, sufficiently veiled for us to stand its splendor, and sufficiently transparent to the eyes of faith. More than this, instead of being a trial this veil becomes a spur, an encouragement to a humble and sincere faith. One likes to penetrate a veiled truth, to discover a hidden treasure, to triumph over a difficulty. In like manner the faithful soul, in the presence of the Eucharistic veil, seeks her Lord like Magdalen at the tomb. Her longing for Him grows more intense. Like the Bride in the Canticle of Canticles she calls for Him. She delights in ascribing to Him everything that is beautiful, in adorning Him with every kind of glory. The Eucharist is to her what God is to the Blessed: a truth and beauty ever old and ever new, that one never tires of fathoming and of looking into. Quaeram quem diligit anima mea! "O Lord, well-beloved of my soul, I will seek Thee forever. Show me Thy adorable Face!" And Jesus manifests Himself gradually to our soul according to the measure of her faith and of her love. The soul thus finds in Jesus a nourishment ever new, an inexhaustible source of life. The Divine object of its contemplation appears always Adorned with some new quality, some new and greater goodness. And just as in this world love lives on happiness and desires, so the soul, through the Eucharist, both enjoys and desires at the same time; she eats, and is still hungry. Only the wisdom and goodness of our Lord could invent the Eucharistic veil.  Contact Us HOME------------------------HOLY EUCHARIST www.catholictradition.org/Eucharist/real-presence18.htm |